1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer having a carriage and a type wheel, and particularly, to such a printer that the carriage and type wheel can be driven by one and same driving source while switching over the driving force between the carriage and the type wheel.
2. Description of the Priot Art
With the progress of electronics in these years there is an increasing tendency to electronize a printer by substituting motor, solenoid etc. for mechanical parts of the printer. While the electronized printer has high reliability in operation, it is quite expensive. This is because the motor and electric elements in the control system are much more expensive than conventional mechanical parts and elements.
Another problem involved in such electronized printer is the driving system for driving the type wheel and carriage.
A printing mechanism including the type wheel is mounted on the carriage. Since the inertia moment of the type wheel system can be reduced only to a limited extent, a large and strong driving source such as a large motor is required to rotate the type wheel at a sufficiently high speed enough to perform high speed printing. This results in large mass of the carriage. Therefore, a large and strong motor is inevitably required also to move the carriage.